Cycling Tour de France: The Pyrenees were shrouded in mist yesterday and the way this Tour de France will develop remains equally opaque in spite of yesterday's two mountain climbs.
The men at the head of the overall standings spent the day watching each other for any sign of weakness while waiting and saving their strength for today's massive stage with its five major climbs.
One issue looked to have been resolved, however. T-Mobile do not have faith in Serhiy Honchar, the winner of the time-trial in Rennes and the man who started yesterday in the yellow jersey.
The hierarchy within the men in pink was clear from the sight of the chasing peloton coming into Pau yesterday, when five T-Mobile riders made the pace on the front, including Honchar, while Andreas Kloden, now clearly their leader, sat in the shelter.
Equally significant, when the Ukrainian struggled on the Soudet and the Marie-Blanque passes there was no domestique assigned to assist him and give moral support. He had to look after himself.
The only other conclusion that could be drawn from yesterday's five hours is that the French teams are having a good Tour.
The home men have already won two stages and yesterday they placed one of their own, Cyril Dessel, in the yellow jersey. It was a classic case of the domestique having his day.
Dessel has won one major race in his seven-year career, the Tour of the Mediterranean this spring, and he was delegated to monitor the day's early escape on behalf of his AG2R team, led by the aging Christophe Moreau after the expulsion of Francisco Mancebo in the Spanish blood-doping scandal.
With today's stage clearly on their minds, T-Mobile were unwilling to expend too much of their strength in the chase, and after crossing the day's two mountain passes, Dessel found himself with a 10-minute lead, along with the Spaniard Juan-Miguel Mercado, another survivor from the bakers' dozen who broke away when the Pyrenees were merely a shadow on the horizon.
With Dessel guaranteed the race lead and the polka-dot King of the Mountains jersey, Mercado requested that, as professional cycling's unwritten laws demand, the Frenchman should let him win the stage. Dessel shook his head, so Mercado responded by refusing to share the pace and duly won the sprint. That in itself had a rags-to-riches element: Mercado already has a stage win in the Tour to his name, at Lons le Saunier in 2004, but his team, Agritubel, is a new outfit with the lowest budget in the race. They are here at the Tour organisers' invitation, and their race is effectively complete.
The two mountain climbs were, predictably, a sea of orange, the colours of the local Euskaltel-Euskadi team. Their leader Iban Mayo has never quite been the same in the Tour since winning the Alpe d'Huez stage in 2003; he was among those left behind on the Soudet and was reduced to fighting for a place in the "autobus" of sprinters and flat-earth men.
Bradley Wiggins, Britain's Olympic track champion, was alongside him to finish his first mountain stage, and David Millar remained with the lead group, including Honchar, until the Marie Blanque, which offers promise for the days to come.
Last year's sixth finisher overall, Levi Leipheimer of the United States, and Damiano Cunego, the 2004 Giro d'Italia winner, also struggled in a way that does not bode well for today, when the massive Col du Tourmalet kicks off proceedings, closely followed by three other passes before the finish on top of another mountain, the Plat de Beret. - Guardian Service
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